Exclusive: J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz Pilot Casts Lead

Sarah Jones (Sons of Anarchy) has landed the lead in the J.J. Abrams-produced Fox pilot Alcatraz. The drama project, from Warner Bros. TV and Abrams’ Bad Robot, centers on a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day. It chronicles the efforts of a team of FBI agents to track them down and unravel the mystery behind their disappearance thirty years prior.

Jones will play Rebecca Madsen, a smart, thoughtful and a little obsessive police officer. She joins Lost alum Jorge Garcia who was the first actor cast in the pilot.

Jones is the latest ingenue to headline a series project from Abrams, who is known for breaking new young female talent on his shows. He cast Keri Russell on Felicity, Jennifer Garner on Alias, Evangeline Lilly on Lost, Australian Anna Torv on Fringe, and, most recently, British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw on Undercovers.

Jones, repped by Greene & Assoc. and manager Lena Rocklin, recurred on FX’s Sons of Anarchy last season and is doing an arc on another FX drama series, Justified. She has been on the radar of Fox’s casting executives with recent guest spots on House and Lone Star. On the feature side, she recently completed The Domino Effect and Storage.